It's to get you to click on the link. The link will then report back any number of things to a database of some description. There could be any number of reasons they want you to click that link, such as to generate traffic through a number of hops to boost advertising revenues, or to try and capture things like your IP address, or to install spyware or blah blah blah. I don't really understand the full ins and outs, but it's rarely a good thing.

Clicking a spam link from email will reveal that it is a valid email address, which in turn will then be sold out to further spammers.

So, I'm tolerant, patient, and usually can find the humour in any sort of situation, but I am annoyed.

My boss (a power-hungry one) demanded passive aggressively that we help...my boss...assemble binders for a huge board meeting on Monday. No worries, right? Not a problem. My boss invited 10 people to accomplish this, all of whom are well-versed in strategic analysis (and are determined to demonstrate this at every opportunity).

We were all expecting several hours of work. My boss then told us we would be rewarded with coffee for staying and helping...which...it's kind of our job to just do whatever needs to be done, so we were all perplexed. But we were then obligated to remain, because...Starbuckian protocol requires it, or something. I don't know.

The job: 25 binders with four tabs; 100 pages in total.

AKA work for one person. MAYBE two people (one to do QAQC). Only...my boss...didn't print everything until the "meeting" was about to start, so we stood around watching the hypnotic tango of the feed tray for 2.5 hours.

I am all for streamlining procedures, and finding the most efficient ways to accomplish tasks. But holy motherfucking JESUS, if I ever have to spend that long in a room with ANALysts EVER AGAIN, I will promptly insert myself into the vacancy I have created in the glass with 25 partially-filled binders of bullshit.